Offer support, not abortion

By KIM DANIELS, Commentary

Published 9:18 pm, Wednesday, March 6, 2013

New York doesn't often lag behind other states — except when it comes to supporting women and girls facing unplanned pregnancies. State law doesn't require that they receive full information about their options, and it does little to provide pregnant women with tangible support to carry a baby to term. But rather than help such women in need, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Reproductive Health Act would make a bad situation worse.

Take basic health and safety precautions for women and girls considering abortion. A recent McLaughlin/Chiaroscuro Foundation poll of 600 likely New York voters shows that 75 percent of New Yorkers oppose changing current law so that someone other than a doctor can perform surgical abortions. The same poll shows that similar numbers of New Yorkers support informed consent and parental notification laws.

Despite this consensus, the Reproductive Health Act, as introduced in the Legislature, would repeal the current law that requires only licensed doctors to perform abortions. By establishing abortion as a "fundamental right," it would prevent the enactment of laws requiring parents to be notified if their underage daughter seeks an abortion, or informed consent laws that ensure that women receive full information about this difficult and life-changing procedure.

The same poll shows that 72.5 percent of New Yorkers think abortion should be a last resort and should be rare. Of course, abortion is anything but rare in New York, which is among the states with the most abortions; in New York City itself, 41 percent of all pregnancies end in abortion.

Yet rather than reduce these numbers, the Reproductive Health Act as it stands now — the governor says his version will be different, but has yet to offer a revision — would increase them by codifying abortion on demand through nine months of pregnancy. A full 80 percent of New Yorkers oppose such an unlimited abortion license.

What does abortion without at least some common sense limits look like in practice?

The RHA would allow abortions for the purposes of reducing twins or triplets to a single child, as well as late-term sex-selective abortions — both procedures also rejected by overwhelming majorities of New Yorkers, even those that identify themselves as pro-choice.

This isn't what women facing crisis pregnancies need. They need actual material support that gives them confidence that real choices are available. But Cuomo's legislative agenda leaves such women alone precisely when they need extra support.

Instead of promoting measures to help pregnant women in need, the governor's proposed 2013-14 budget would decimate funding for the Maternity & Early Childhood Foundation , the only state-funded program that provides real alternatives to abortion for women — mostly single and low-income — who are facing unplanned pregnancies.

Kristin Day, executive director of Democrats for Life, has challenged this discrepancy, instead urging New York Democrats to replace the RHA with food and health care assistance for pregnant women, support for pregnant women in abusive relationships, and programs that encourage adoption.

Such programs would have the biggest impact in poor and minority communities, because that's where abortion hits hardest. In the Bronx, for instance, nearly half of all pregnancies end in abortion. The abortion ratio in some other New York City neighborhoods rises even higher.

Unfortunately, those aren't the kinds of programs Cuomo has chosen to promote. Instead, the Reproductive Health Act seeks to solve a problem that doesn't exist, increasing access to abortion in a state that frequently vies for the title of abortion capital of the country. What's more, some legal experts think that language in the RHA may be used to require all hospitals to perform abortions on their premises, something Catholic hospitals would resist even if it meant shutting down and being forced out of neighborhoods that sorely need their services.

Cuomo's legislative agenda includes admirable goals like helping victims of domestic violence and ending pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. Instead of coupling these goals with proposals that would provide pregnant women with the tangible support they need, he's offered pregnant woman something they don't need: more abortion.

It's long past time to offer New York women the support that will give them a real choice.